We decided!

I'm so excited. Hubby is so excited. We're both so excited! :)

It hasn't been booked yet, but I'm talking about our first extended vacation together since our honeymoon!

We've both said that it's going to be so hard to leave the boys and so so hard to be away from them for 5 whole days but we also know that it is so important for us to have that special special time together.

So last month I wrote a post about the four possibilities we were entertaining. Each had so many fun and relaxing aspects to them but we ended up choosing...

New York!!!

Here's why! : [1] Don't know how this preggy would do on a ship :) [2] We've been to the mountain getaway and we know everything it has to offer and while nice, we'd love to do something different. [3] The all-inclusive resort sounds like so much fun but we were thinking we'd have some more activities to do and there are only so many water activities a 5/6 month preggy can do :). [4] We're all going to the beach, off N. Carolina, with Hubby's family in July. [5] We don't know what other beaches might like at the time of our vacay.

For New York: [1] Travel time is relatively short so we'll have so much more time to hang, explore a little, have fun, and relax. [2] We are so excited about seeing more Broadway shows together! [3] We're going to go during the US Open Tennis Tourny and Hubby (and I) has NEVER seen a live match before! [4] Fun and relaxation.

One of the aspects of our relationship and marriage that I love, is sharing each others interests. When we met, even though Hubby loved music he would have no idea how much he would come to love, learn about, and appreciate classical music (and musicals :)), and though I loved sports, I had no idea how much I would learn about, enjoy, and appreciate so many sports on a deeper level. So I think it is so neat that we'll get to enjoy both of these things on our trip together!

So we have a couple questions for you! and we would LOVE to hear your thoughts and recs!

Broadway: What shows should we see??? We have some in mind but we'd love to hear your thoughts! We've seen Billy Elliot and Aida (in different venues). Is it better to sit higher and closer or on the floor?

Hotels: Where should we stay??

Restaurants: Where should we try to eat?

We would love to hear your recommendations, thank you!!!

BabyBoy is 3 Years Old!

Yesterday, BabyBoy turned three. years. old! Our BabyBoy... The Big Guy, Big, BooBoo, Sweet Guy, Lovebug, Buggy, BugBug, Boost, Big Sweet Guy, Lovie, Loves, LoveLove... really, we're glad he knows his real name, hehe!

June 2007: A little look back: Our little sweet had surgery the morning after he was born and was such a strong and courageous little guy. He spent two weeks and two days in the NICU, though it felt like an eternity the doctors and nurses said could have easily been months. So many people were praying, to God be the glory!!

He had tubes in each little nostril, his mouth, a central line in his right inner thigh, and IVs in his little hands. We were with him from the morning and didn't leave the hospital almost until or until morning. Daddy is singing to him and telling him what a great job he's doing!

Sweet baby, look at that sweet grip! He's going to hold our hand like that when he goes to college right?

We finally got to take him home!!!

June 2010: Ohhhhhh look at that face!!! Doesn't it just make you smile and want to kiss those little cheeks?? {proud mama here ;-)}

BabyBoy,

You are such an incredible blessing and an amazing little guy. Everyday is such a fun adventure with you. You are a learning machine and we love to see how proud you are when you can do new things, because we are equally proud of you. You are quite the strong willed little guy but your spirit is so sweet, caring, and funny, and you are such a good boy (we have worked a lot on discipline and obedience with the help of great friends and family, and some books too :)). There is not one day that goes by that you don't make us laugh!

We love seeing your interests blossom. You absolutely love music. You have since before you were born. And that makes your musician Mommy so happy. You love to sing, make up your own songs to tunes you know and ones that you compose all by yourself. You love to play the piano, guitar, your little 1/4 sized violin, and you can make a set of drums from any materials you can find and use chopsticks, straws, or anything you can concoct for drumsticks. :) You are so creative and imaginative!

You are also a great little sportsman. You can get swish it up feet from the basket, in your indoor basketball net. And you can throw and catch like nobody's little business, making Daddy very proud.

You continue to be a little talker and conversationalist, and we love it. We love hearing everything you have to say and the sweet, fun, and funny thoughts you are thinking. You love to talk on the phone and just walk around and talk about anything and everything you can think of. It makes all of us laugh.

The beach is just one of the things you have been talking about for months and months. You love the beach. You've only been twice, once when you were teeny and once when you were almost 2 1/2 and you've been talking about it pretty much every day since our last trip. You are so excited to tell everybody that "we're going to the beach in Julyyyy." We are so excited to go together too!

Since you were teeny, you have always made people smile all around you. You love people and we love that about your character. You love to say hi to "people" and "everybody" anywhere people are. You love having conversations with everybody and just telling them about whatever you are excited about at that time. When we have dinner with Great Grandpa and Great Grandma in the dining hall at their condo, all of the residents and staff get so excited when they see you. You go up to people's tables and talk with them, and they can't stop asking when you and your little brother are going to come back.

We love you so much and are so excited to continue seeing the little man of God that you are becoming. You love singing praise songs, especially from the Veggie Tales cd we listen to in the car. You sing right along to all the songs with you little microphone. You always ask to go into the next service at church, after Sunday school, so you can listen to the big service's music. You love to pray for our meals and before you go and your little bro go for nitenite. (And you can't go to bed until you've given your baby brother a kiss and a cuddle, and you kiss Mommy's belly, snuggle, and say, "Nitenite Littlest," too.) You pray, "...and thank you God for all of our boys" even after you name everybody in the family, it always makes us smile. You love Sunday school and always get the best reports when we pick you up. They always say how polite you are too, saying please and thank you, and "no thank-you" which makes everyone giggle because it is so cute coming out in your two, now three, year old voice.

We love you sooooo much baby!

Daddy and Mommy

P.S. Oh and you love your veggies! We actually have to tell you to eat other things on your plate if you want more veggies, hehe, you good silly boy!

Party dets to come! {...fun little family celebration yesterday and the big party is next month :)}

Smiles :)

"helloooo... whodare?" whenever we say, Little talk on your phone, or, say hello who's there, he puts the phone up to his ear/behind his head, so cute.

hehe, watermelon in the summer, on the deck, in t-shirt and undies :)

Little is such a good little player, and can take on the toy corner like a big boy :)

why buy toys when you can sing and make your own drums with plastic containers (and empty oatmeal containers, not shown) and chopsticks???

we love meal time :) silly boys!

Hi friends and fam! I hope ya'll are doing great! I have still been very good friends with our bed and couch, but am definitely starting to feel better overall.

I have felt a little isolated but there are so many things lifting me up: 1. my Hubby working from home the majority of the time and getting to talk to and see each other all the time, 2. some friends and especially my twitter girls checking up on me and being able to chat with ya'll when I feel well enough to type :) or occasionally talk on the phone for a quick bit, 3. my Mom coming down on Saturdays and hanging out with the boys (and us), sharing lots of laughs, and taking such good care of all of us!

Annnd, the giggles, cuddles, laughs, and smiles of our little ones! I hope our littles could make you smiles today :)

p.s. I have well over 1000 unread posts in my g00gle reader, I opened it up to see the number for the first time in a reeeeally long time. I still haven't been spending much time on the computer, except to plan the littles' birthday party! So thanks for sticking with me sweets!

Celebrating 7 Years!

Happy 7th Wedding Anniversary to my best friend in the entire world, to the most amazing Hubby and Daddy I have ever seen, the one who balances me perfectly, loves me unconditionally, and tells me every day without fail that I'm beautiful - even though I don't believe him - and that I get more beautiful everyday, who makes me smile every time he calls me by one of his nicknames for me; I am living a dream.

This is probably my favorite little set of photos because it represents how much fun we all had at our wedding!!

It was an incredible mix of Jewish and Christian tradition. It was perfect. (I am a J ewish believer)

We were on the dance floor all night! We had so. much. fun! Our first dance was, Have You Ever Been In Love by Celine Dion. It lasted what felt like forever, hehe, but it was wonderful and we love the lyrics. :)

I hope we get to get married again one day!!! :)

Sweet Support

Alright ya'll! We've all said it before, but I have to say it again, the community everybody has made blogland and twitterland into is pretty incredible. There is love, lots of laughs, friends new and old and their posts or tweets to relate to, there is need, and there is support!

I first want to thank you for your support for our Naturally Caffeinated Family! Seriously, you know you have brought tears to my eyes with how sweet and caring ya'll are. I am so incredibly happy and ecstatic to tell you that our follow up ultrasound appointment on Friday could not have gone any better!!!!!!!!! Littlest looked amazing!! Had grown amazingly! And even moved around for us during the ultrasound too, it was... amazing! :-) We could see Littlest's little arms and legs, his or her (everybody thinks it's a girl :)) big ole head. Remember at our last appointment 2 weeks and a day before, Littlest measured 6 weeks and 1 day and on Friday (2 weeks and 1 day later), Littlest measured 8 weeks and 5 days! It is still driving my apparently very Type A self crazy that I don't know the exact dates, haha! I don't know if you could tell from my first post telling ya'll we were pregnant, that we were so incredibly excited, but it wasn't written quite as excited as I would normally be. The reason is because that since we've had a high risk pregnancy and a miscarriage, it is hard for us to make it fully real, and dive all in, until we know that the baby is ok. It's a protective mechanism I suppose. But that's also why we tell early, because the power of prayer is unbelievable and beyond comprehension. Anywho, we are praising God like crazy and head over heels excited!! BabyBoy says he's ready for another baby and he wants a baby sister, hehe. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for loving us and supporting us even when I haven't been able to get on your blogs and share my love with you lately! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!

Here is the new pic of Littlest! The head is on the right, and do you see his or her little arms and legs??? Incredible! As Hubby said on Friday, and I completely concur, it never gets old. We are always excited about each appointment, even when they are the shorty short ones!! :)

Now there are couple friends that need some support!!

Vitafamiliae

My first blog friend and very first commenter ever was a wonderful, sweet, true, loving, real life friend! These sweet friends, against our wishes, moved to Alabama, too many years ago, to be closer to family, we understand :), and continued adding little ones to their crew (and cute ones at that). Hubby and I have been trying to plan another trip to visit them and just hang out for a few days and get our laugh, board or card gameage, fun, and catching up (and snack while we game of course) on! :)

They have 5 littles of their own, despite doctors telling them they could never have ANY children because of several issues (that I know many others face). They went through years of trying, figuring out, praying, medicine, and a lot of faith.

Now, they are in the process of adopting a precious little one from Uganda. The A and LL have come up with a cute and wonderful idea to help raise funds to bring their next little one home! They brought to life and are selling HopeSuds! HopeSuds is a wonderfully homemade (with love!), all-natural, laundry detergent. I love how the family put it, every time that you scoop your HopeSuds, you can say a little prayer for their family and the new baby that will enter their lives! Awww, it's so powerful. If adoption is on your heart - bringing a little one who has nothing and is in deep need of love and security, into a loving, strong, family - and you want to help support this sweet family, then go get you some HopeSuds! We bought some and will definitely buy some more! Not only are you going to get a fabulous, well thought out, and all-natural product, but you will be an incredible support to this family and the little one they want to bring home. And any prayers you can throw their way is so appreciated too of course :-), for the adoption process, for the rest of their little family, and for the A and LL as well!

Brent, Megan, and baby Cohen

Many of you follow this sweet family as well! We have been following each other's blogs and tweeting together for a little while now, and they need our prayers and support as well. Sweet baby Cohen has been diagnosed, in utero, with four heart defects, will have many surgeries after he is born, and Brent and Megan have moved to a new state and town closer to the hospital where they will have Cohen.

Baby Cohen will be born on Monday June 7th!!! We are so excited for them and are praying for the whole fam! Please join me in praying for all of the doctors that will be involved, all of the nurses that cross their path, that God will have his hand on Brent, Megan, and Baby Cohen, as we know He does, that Cohen will be so strong, and fiesty :), the delivery will go wonderfully, for Brent and Megan after the delivery for strength, that their house they moved from sells, and I don't know about you, but we believe in miracles, and believe we can all be praying for one here too!!

And there is another way we can support them too! A trust fund has been set up to help with all of the medical expenses that their family will have. Click on the button below to read more about Baby Cohen and you can have the privileged opportunity to help out this wonderful family!

What a blessing each of these families are and I know it would be such a blessing to each of them to have your prayers and if you feel led a lil financial support as well! :)

Blessings friends!!

Littlest and a Surprise (and a giveaway winner!)

Hi Fam and Friends!! Woowee, I haven't been feeling very well so I am so so so behind on you and updating here! I hope you are doing great and I look forward to catching up on you soon! Here is the important update on our last appointment, a wonderful surprise from my Hubs, and the winner for my last giveaway.

Appointment Update: Our first ultrasound about a week a half ago: Littlest measured smaller than we were all anticipating. By the dates we were thinking, Littlest was around 7 wks 5 days and measured 6 wks 1 day. We are pretty sure and praying that it is just because my dates are off but our doctor wants us to come back two weeks from that appointment, which will be this Friday, June 4th. I usually know all of the different days involved down to the T, but my cycle hadn't normalized yet after LittleBoo so it could have happened anytime! Apparently I am more Type A than I keep thinking, because it drives me crazy not knowing the exact dates, due date, and dates in between, no matter what the ultrasounds/sonograms/doctors say, hehe.

We are so excited!! We can't believe it's real yet and we just pray for a healthy baby!!! Due date is around the 2nd week of January and Littlest and LittleBoo will be about 18 months apart! :)

One thing that makes it a little more real, besides my little bump already :) is that I have been feeling preeeetty sick. As my Aunt said, whoever named it "morning" sickness was wrong, hehe. So true! I haven't even felt well enough to open my computer to blog or even tweet very much on my phone. Ya'll know it's bad if that is the case, ha! But I wouldn't change anything!! And Hubby has been incredible as always!!!

Here is "Littlest!" All almost 5 tiny little centimeters of him or her :)

Surprise: Hubby had one more birthday surprise up his sleeve! I couldn't believe it. Weeks ago he asked me if he could have me for a date on a Saturday a couple weeks ago. Of course I said yes! Well, that night I was feeling pretty bad and asked if even though he had picked a great restaurant about 45 minutes away, we could just go to one about 5 minutes down the street. He said, sure we could, but I could tell he wanted to take me to that one. :)

He dropped me off at the Japanese Steak House (one of my favorites!! He knows me!) so I didn't have to walk as far since I wasn't feeling well (although, God was so sweet because I started to feel a little better in the car and at dinner as well), and when I walked in, I saw someone I knew, and another, and another! It was a such a beautiful surprise! It was all wonderful friends who we don't get to see enough anymore and there were others that weren't able to make that night.

After a de-licious and fun dinner we went back to one of our friend's house and watched the first episode of Lost together before the finale aired that weekend.

It was a wonderful night!!

Giveaway Winner:

Molly at Stilettos and Diapers

Congratulations!! and thank you so much for entering! Please e-mail me you contact info at naturallycaffeinatedfamily {at} gmail {dot} com. Winner was chosen by random.org.

I hope ya'll are doing great! And we thank you so much for all of your incredibly sweet comments, tweets, and prayers!!! Praying for a big healthy Littlest on Friday! :)